Hi:
I asked my hair dresser and my oncologist and they both told me that I could not dye my hair because of the chemicals going into my body so I would assume the same for a perm. But like the rest I'm not a pro but I did ask the pros. Good luck Susie

Thanks for your responses. I am going to avoid perms for now. About 1/3 of my original hair still remains. But the hair coming in is very fine, slightly wavy and actually has more body than my original hair. I have just decided to curl my hair with hot rollers and that gets me by until more grows out. I never shaved my head so got to avoid the conversation with grand kids and it worked well for me. They didn't even notice...I love kids!!! It does grow back!! I even have eyebrows again. That was the hardest. Finally feel nearly normal some days!!!

My hair that was left was so fine (same chemo drugs), like baby's hair, I just shaved it all off and let it grow back in...now, over 6 months after it started growing back, I have curls! Didn't color it again until May, and my chemo ended in January.

There are some wonderful ideas on this site on how to help. I have brothers and sisters out of state. They asked how they could help. I told them phone calls. And some days I wanted to talk about how I was feeling and some days I just wanted to chat bout their stuff and not mine. It has been wonderful getting so reconnected. If you want to get a care package to her I bet several people could provide ideas. Some of my best gifts were lotion (dry skin and scalp are a side effect), lip balm, home made soups (hard for you at a distance) and my all time favorite, gift certificates to favorite food restaurants!! Those so wonderful when my tired husband or I felt overwhelmed. But mostly stay connected. It's lonely and depressing getting better at home all day while the world passes you by. It could be, like me, my reaction to the chemo has been better each month about some aspects and worse about others.

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